Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Chocolate Treats from Dipolog City's Tablea Chocolate Cafe

I'm not really crazy about chocolate, but I won't turn down a chance to sample good chocolate. We were in Dipolog City, located in the southern island of Mindanao, scouting for new seminar venues. In one of the newer hotels, Ariana, located minutes away from the airport, is a branch of Cebu-based Tablea Chocolate Cafe, specializing in tablea-based food and drinks. The Dipolog branch appears to be the first outside the Visayas. Tablea is a tablet made from pure cocoa and is traditionally used in the country for hot chocolate. The company claim to source their cocoa locally. This is our picks from the menu, and they're all excellent.

The choco silvana. I love its toothy goodness. It was nutty, with a crunchy outer layer, and creamy inside. As you can see, it's pretty and lethal. Silvana is described as a frozen cookie made up of a layer of buttercream sandwiched between two cashew-meringue wafers.

Dark choco goes well with mango and churros. Churros are fried-dough pastry-based snack of Spanish origin.

Pictured above is the puto maya. The mango provides a welcome acidity.